This article features four colleges and how they take on veterans' issues in research and real life. These colleges are (1) Syracuse University; (2) Purdue University; (3) University of Southern California; and (4) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Last year Syracuse established the Institute for Veterans and Military Families to focus…

The 22-year-old Whitaker Foundation, the largest private supporter of biomedical engineering, will close in 2006 to avoid becoming a bureaucracy in search of a reason for being. The foundation, with assets of about $442 million, will increase payouts until 1999, then decrease them as it spends its way out of existence. About 95% of grants go to…

Riverside has long struggled to shake its reputation as a campus of last resort in the University of California system, taking in students who could not get accepted at more prestigious branches. But Riverside's position has also allowed it to draw large numbers of students from low-income backgrounds, who are likelier than their wealthier peers…

Vanderbilt University (Tennessee) involves students in faculty research projects to enrich the undergraduate experience. The summer program offers stipends to students to work with faculty or graduate students on specific projects. Students are exposed to the processes of research and better able to choose or reject a research career. (MSE)

Discusses how, fueled by the war on terrorism, Congress has awarded a record $1.8 billion in academic earmarks in the 2002 fiscal year. Profiles several recipient programs and includes a campus-by-campus list of projects. (EV)

Scientific research has traditionally been left to professionals in Russia. Here, though, graduates and undergraduates work alongside established scientists from different fields, on modern equipment. Some even earn enough money to support themselves. The students have been given this chance under a joint program of the United States and Russia…

A consortium of universities has charged that research money has been concentrated in a small number of states that have already established close ties between higher education and small businesses. Some small-business advocates believe the consortium is trying to win money that has been earmarked for small businesses. (MLW)

The Harvard "Program in Ethics and the Professions" focuses less on abstract moral reasoning than on practical problems, the concrete decisions and dilemmas of the real world. Another key question that has been discussed is whether or not it is possible to teach moral reasoning without teaching moral values. (MLW)

While the bicentennial of the Constitution is beginning to have public impact, it has made little impression on research in the fields of history, law, and political science. Books about the Constitution are listed and a calendar of conferences on the U.S. Constitution is provided. (MLW)

About 670 college teachers will spend 18 weeks working with noted university scholars during summer 1986 under a program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The teachers will spend the next year talking about their experiences, incorporating new ideas into their courses, and continuing their scholarly pursuits. (MLW)

Since Syracuse University (New York) started a campaign to reward teaching, it has entered several related projects, including a national survey on how teaching and research are valued by campus groups, a six-university self-examination of reward systems, and a project asking learned societies to consider a broader view of scholarship. (MSE)

Scholars in the University of Maryland's Afro-American studies program are studying the ways in which black communities have been left behind as white society found new ways to advance economically. They hope to reach into black communities to familiarize those populations with computers and use of the Internet while building a research base in…

Describes how the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, a business-friendly idea factory, has big plans for expansion and for helping developing nations. (EV)

Senior seminars established at St. Mary's College (Maryland) as capstone courses for majors are intended to offer an interdisciplinary perspective and enable students to demonstrate mastery of skills. Assignments typically include writing a major paper, conducting a research project, or leading a class discussion. (MSE)